OuranTale
by jkawsome
Summary: Haruhi Fujioka finds herself in the underground with no idea how she got there. Now she'll need all of her wits, determination, and the help of some strange but familiar faces to find a way back home.
1. Prologue

Haruhi Fujioka was no stranger to weirdness. After all, she was repaying the debt she earned breaking an eight million yen vase by pretending to be a boy and working in a host club at a school for the "rich and beautiful". "Weird" was her daily life at this point.

That being said, Haruhi was pretty sure she fell asleep in her own bed at home. So when she woke up on dirty ground with aches all over her body, she immediately knew something was wrong.

Pulling herself up with a groan, she examined her surroundings. She was laying on a small patch of golden flowers, surrounded by stone. Looking up, she noticed cave walls as far as the eye could see, going up and up until the spot where a bit of light shone through. So she had clearly fallen into a cave of some sort. But how had she gotten there? And if she had fallen, and her bruises said she had, how had she survived? The top was so far away!

And….what was she wearing? The blue and purple striped sweatshirt and dark blue shorts she had on were definitely not hers!

Haruhi frowned. If this was some prank by the other hosts, then she was quitting on the spot, debt be damned. Well, as soon as she found a way out that is.

Closer inspection of the cave revealed a pathway leading to some stone columns. Haruhi felt a spark of hope; if there were buildings in this place, there was probably another way out. She dragged herself to her feet and headed on her way. There seemed to be nothing but stone and walls at first, there was nothing else to look at.

However soon Haruhi found herself rounding the corner into a clearing, where a single golden flower with a smiling face sat. The flower noticed her and seemed to perk up.

"Howdy!" It. It said. It said? The flower was talking? "I'm Flowey the flower! It's very nice to meet you!"

Haruhi blinked. She had never seen a talking flower before. That sort of stuff just didn't happen in reality. She must be dreaming. That would explain all the other weirdness. The thought was comforting. "It's nice to meet you too I guess," She said. "I'm Haruhi Fujioka."

Flowey's grin grew brighter. "Hello Haruhi! You seem to be new to the Underground, is that right?"

Haruhi nodded. The underground must be what this place was called. Not very creative, but then again, this was just a dream. Her dreams weren't usually this detailed. It would make sense for her mind to come up with a name like that. "Do you think you can give me directions on how to get out of here?"

Flowey tilted his(?) head. "Out of the Underground? Well sure, but there's no way you can get out like this. Your Soul is too weak. You need a really strong Soul to get you all the way through the Underground to where the exit is."

"Then how do I get a strong Soul?" She asked.

"I thought you'd say that! That's where I come in to help you out!" All of a sudden, everything around them dimmed. Haruhi felt a pull on her chest, and looked down to find a red heart hovering near her heart. Weird. "See that?" Flowey said. "That's your Soul. The culmination of your being. It's weak now, see that bar?" She looked to where the flower was pointing to see a small yellow bar with a "20" at the end. "Don't worry though, it'll get stronger the more LOVE you gain."

"Alright, that sounds reasonable enough, I guess." It made sense, that souls would get stronger with love. "How do I get more love exactly?"

"I'll share some with you now!" Flowey chirped. Small white circles formed around him. "Here, this is what it looks like in physical form. Move around, try and get as many as you can!"

Flowey sent the circles her way. Haruhi moved around to grab them-

"OW!" She gasped in pain as they struck her Soul. It was like something sharp and heavy had slammed into her and then dug itself into her chest! She turned her head to see her yellow bar was at a sliver, and the number read 1.

This wasn't a dream.

Haruhi looked up to see Flowey's face had morphed. Where a smile was, something twisted had taken shape, with sharp teeth and terrifying eyes. "You idiot! In this world, it's kill or be killed!" Even his voice had changed, sounding grating and nasty. "DIE."

The white circles surrounded Haruhi, on level with where her Soul was. Was this how she died? In some strange cave in strange clothes with a strange not-flower that wanted to kill her for some reason? The circles closed in, and Haruhi wished she would stop _hurting_ so much so that she could get out of the way-

-And a fireball flew in from nowhere, knocking the flower away from her. The circles vanished. Haruhi let out a breath of relief and looked towards the person that saved her, ready to thank them.

The words froze in her mouth. Instead, a small "Mori-Senpai?" Came out instead.

Mori-Senpai looked at her. "Hello. My name is Takashi. You must've mistaken me for someone else. Sorry."

Haruhi opened her mouth to snap at him, demand to know what was going on and why he was randomly insisting on being Takashi. She closed it and took a closer look.

It was Mori, absolutely, but there was something…._different_ about him. He was dressed in a purple and white suit and tie, with a strange logo she had never seen before on both. He looked to be the same age as the Mori-Senpai she was used to, maybe a bit older, but his eyes looked both sad and ancient. There was something vaguely...inhuman about him. This was Mori-Senpai, but not the one she knew.

"Um….Takashi," She tried. "Thanks for saving me." The man nodded.

"I've seen that creature before. It's pitiful, picking on a young human like that," He said. "Come with me. I've got a place for you to rest up." Haruhi hesitated. She had trusted Flowey, after all. And why did he say "young human", like he wasn't human himself?

_No. It's still Mori-Senpai. He would never do anything like that._

She followed Takashi into another room, with stone stairs and flowers. In the middle was a small glowing spark. On instinct, Haruhi reached out and grabbed it. It was warm, but not burning.

**The sight of the Ruins fills you with determination.**

**Hp fully restored.**

Haruhi glanced up in surprise. She could have sworn she had just heard someone else's voice. It sounded familiar, but she couldn't place it.

"Are you coming?" Takashi asked her.

"Yeah." Haruhi followed him further into the ruins. She would ask him more questions once they were safe.


	2. The Ruins: Part 1

Haruhi followed Takashi into the next room, where what looked to be stone buttons were on the floor, and a switch was on the wall. Blocking their path to the next room was a set of Takashi stepped over the stones in a certain order, then flipped the switch, causing the spikes to sink into the floor.

"Do you have to do that every time you pass through?" Haruhi asked him curiously. Takashi nodded.

"It resets each time. Just in case. Come on." They walked into the next room. Where Takashi pressed two of the switches on the wall to let them through. Haruhi noticed running water in the room that they seemed to be crossing over. Where did it come from? Where was it going? A part of her still couldn't believe this wasn't just a dream, it was so odd. And there was this weird version of Mori-Senpai, of course.

Speaking of which, he was waiting for her. She jogged to catch up.

The next room contained a dummy. Takashi stopped and turned to her. "There are things you should know now," he said. "When monsters encounter you, they will enter a **FIGHT**."

"Monsters?" She asked. He nodded

"That is what we are, our species. Some of us look like humans, others much less so. Our bodies also work differently than human bodies." Haruhi frowned, then took a closer look at Takashi. That vaguely inhuman feeling was still there. He was taller than she remembered him to be. If she focused hard enough, she could almost see him covered in _fur_.

It set her nerves on edge, but she forced it down. _It's Mori-Senpai. It's fine._ That was just part of this weird world, right? And once she got out of here, she didn't need to worry about it again. "Thanks for telling me. So, what do you mean, "enter a fight?"

"**FIGHT**, not fight." He put an odd stress on the first "fight". "Humans cannot initiate a **FIGHT.** Here, it is best for you to experience it yourself." He nodded towards the dummy.

Feeling a bit silly, Haruhi stepped up to it. The room around her dimmed, just as it had when Flowey had tricked her. So that had been a fight then. Her breath caught at the memory of almost dying, and she forced herself to breathe slowly. It was fine. She was fine.

**You encountered the Dummy.** There was the voice again! She knew it, but who was it?

Haruhi looked in front of her. The red heart that was her soul was in front of her again, and so where four boxes, each with a different word inside.

**FIGHT - ACT - ITEM - MERCY**

So those where her options then? It was kind of like an rpg of some sort. She could work with that, she'd played some of them before. But….the idea of killing anything, especially if they looked like her friends like Takashi did, sat wrong in her stomach. She had a feeling she'd be using the mercy button a lot.

She pressed **MERCY**. Two more options came up. To spare or to flee? Very rpg-like, made sense. She pressed Spare.

**Dummy stands around aimlessly, very bored.** The voice sounded sarcastic. Haruhi decided to press **ACT**. The option to check came up, and she took it. **Dummy. Doesn't really do anything. Very boring. Why are we still here?** Well, at least she knew the guy (at least it sounded like a guy) had an impatient personality. Haruhi pressed Flee and left. Takashi nodded at her and the two advanced.

As they walked through the next room, Haruhi felt a jolt as her soul suddenly came out of her body and hovered in front of her as the room dimmed once again. Some…._thing_ hopped up to her. It looked almost like one of the boys she shared math class with, but…. His skin was tinged green in places, his eyes were inhuman, and the way he moved and crouched felt very…. Frog-like.

**Froggit attacks! Go Froggit!** The voice cheered. Haruhi tried to keep the annoyance off her face as she decided to act, then complement. Hmmm. What could she say?

"Your physique is very interesting. You look pretty cool," She offered. The Froggit tilted his head. Before anything else could happen, Takashi entered the **FIGHT** and glared at the Froggit. He quickly scampered away. Even in another world, not many could resist the guy's glares.

**You won! Hurray! You got zero EXP and zero gold, good for you.** Haruhi left out a sigh of relief as the world returned to normal.

They approached the room's puzzle, a floor covered entirely with spikes. Takashi grabbed her hand and lead her across the room.

"Could you tell me what a Froggit is?" Haruhi asked him, trying not to focus on the sharp spikes that could lead to her demise.

"A type of monster," He replied. "Froggits look a lot less human, although they're nowhere near the strangest monster form out there." Definitely interesting to know. Haruhi wondered what type of monsters looked even less human than Froggits. And would any of her close friends be some of them? Would she recognize them?

At the end of the next room, a long corridor with nothing in it, Takashi stopped and turned to her.

"Please wait here," he said. "I will return shortly. This room is safe, do not worry. Here." He handed her an old flip phone. "This has my number on it. Call me if you need me."

"Um, alright then." Haruhi watched him go. Why did he want to go ahead of her? She scanned the room she was supposed to stay in. Takashi said it was safe, but was it really? What if a monster came along and she was forced into another fight? She'd just be a sitting duck like this!

_That's it,_ she decided. _Sorry Takashi, but I don't want to just sit around and wait for someone to kill me. I'll catch up with you._ Filled with determination, she started forward. She was going to find the exit to this weird place, no matter what!


End file.
